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Greater Prairie-Chicken (Displaying Male)

Now endangered in Missouri, prairie-chickens breed from March through May. Cocks visit booming grounds (leks), where they dance, call, and fight among themselves. Hens visit the lek and select the most fit mate; mating occurs on the lek during April.

The fastest living animal, this bird can dive at speeds of up to 261 miles per hour! It is currently being reintroduced to the state in urban areas, where skyscrapers replace the cliffs it traditionally nested on.

Originally, this water bird lived on islands, beaches and sandbars in big rivers, but as these areas have become rare, least terns have been forced to “make do” with dredge islands, dikefields, sandpits and gravel roads atop levees. Because of their habitat loss, they are now endangered.

Barn owls have lived alongside humans for ages! Their bones have been found at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where human bones were discovered. Missouri’s barn owls continue the tradition today. Most nests are in grain elevators, old barns and similar places.

This owl is commonly active during day, especially in early morning and late afternoon, as well as night. A prairie species, it hunts while flying low over grasslands, with a buoyant, mothlike flight. The short ear tufts are difficult to see.

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